Re: [tied] Re: Likely IE home: India

On Mon, 21 Jan 2002 12:08:07 -0000, "tgpedersen"
<tgpedersen@...> wrote:

>In one website, I saw the name of the Armenian god of war, Vahagn,
>explained as coming from *vah- "carry", *agn- "fire", thus a fire-
>bringing, Prometheus-like god. If so, judging from *vah-, it must be
>Indic, not Iranian (the god himself is a "translation" of the Iranian
>god <V&r&Tragna->, but the compound type (verb+object cf. French
><porte-parole> etc) doesn't look right. On the other hand, getting
>from V&r&Tragna- to Vahagn, how would you get rid of all those r's?
>That does't look right either. Anyone have a solution (an Indian one
>would of course be the most interesting)?

It's Iranian. Iranian -Tr-/-hr- regularly becomes -h- in Armenian
(e.g. Av. v&r&Tra- "armour" > Arm. vah-an "shield"). The word has
nothing to do with Skt. vah- "carry", and probably nothing with Agni-
"fire" either. Iranian V&r&Tragna- (Varhran) might be a compound of
the word above "shield, armour" with *-ghan "slayer, killer", or, as
suggested on another website, parallel to Skt. Vr.trahan "slayer of
Vritra" (i.e., Indra).

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...